God never changes. He is always the same (see Malachi 3:6). Yet the Bible contains a track record of God changing how he deals with mankind all through the Bible. It is not hard to produce evidence of God dealing differently with different men throughout the course of history. For example, God did not deal with the Apostle Paul in the same way that He dealt with Abraham. God was merciful to both of these men and God saved both of these men, but God did not deal with these two men in the same way. These two men lived at different times in history and they had different responsibilities and obligations before God. The same could be said about Noah and Solomon. God dealt differently with these two men.
Adding to the difference is the method by which God reveals Himself. Throughout the thousands of years of human history God has been revealing His truth to men. We must understand that God reveals His truth to men gradually and not all at once. God revealed certain things to Adam, but there were many things that God did not reveal to him. Later God revealed even more things to Abraham. Later in history God revealed even more things to Moses and to David. Today, we do not have a Temple to worship in nor a sacrificial system to follow. That is a big change! Also, as Jesus walked this earth He revealed certain things to His disciples which had never been revealed to Old Testament believers (see Matthew 13:17). Even the disciples were not given all of the truth. There were many things that Jesus did not tell them because they were not ready to hear them (see John 16:12). They had to wait for more change. Later, after the death and resurrection of Christ, God revealed even more to the Apostle Paul (see Galatians 1:11-12; Ephesians 3:3-5). Finally, after Paul and the other apostles had died, God revealed even more of His truth to the Apostle John, the man who penned the book of Revelation (see Revelation 1:1-3, 9-12, etc.). God seems to change throughout the Bible, which leads us to a natural question that Christians need to grapple with.
Questions:
How are we to remedy God dealing differently with mankind over time? If a person said God seems to have changed, what would you say?
My thinking is maybe that God does not change, but the circumstances do.
What about Moses changing God’s mind?
What do you think about this link about this very subject?
Interesting!
http://www.gotquestions.org/immutability-God.html
The site seems to have solid material and seeks to address God and change in a biblical manner. However, my question related more toward how God changes in approach to His plan over time. For example, how do you reconcile the change of God telling the people that they will inherit the land of promise and yet they have not as of yet? Will this yet happen? Does God have to do this or can He change His mind? Or, how God used the Law to communicate His covenant with Moses and yet we would say Jesus fulfilled that standard. Well, is that covenant gone? Is there a way to surface any topic (land, Law, etc.) and then apply a principle/grid/remedy that would indicate whether or not God has changed in relation to that particular standard? How do we know we are not minimizing the Law or the land today? Is this something we should be addressing as Christians?
I would agree this is not an easy topic, but it certainly is relevant since we are part of God’s plan and need to grow up into a confidence of how it is being manifested over time and how it relates to us today.
Don’t be dispensational. Seriously. I think that God did not change his plan…he merely fulfilled it in a way that we did not expect. Jesus is the Promised Land.
I agree that Jesus is the ultimate expression of every physical promise. However, just because God fulfills a plan in a different way does not answer the question of whether or not God will continue in fulfilling the literal promise of a promised land. BTW. You acknowledge being dispensational in your answer. You may not ascribe to the classic system of dispensationalism (BTW. I do not ascribe to classic dispensationalism), but you do acknowledge the idea of being dispensational.
First of all, sorry for the short and trite sounding post. Didn’t mean to come across that way.
Referring to your point, Jesus fulfilled the promise of a land. In my understanding of the Bible, this means that once fulfilled, there is no need for us to look for a “literal” fulfillment in the actual land of Canaan.
I am neither Classic nor Progressive in my view of Dispensationalism. I do think that the idea of dispensations are Biblical (Paul even uses the word dispensation), but I do not believe in it as the Dispensationalists would define it (Classical or Progressive). Though I have much common ground with the Progressives.
I am what you would probably call a Covenant theologian. I became this due to my belief that the “literal” hermeneutic of dispensationalism is acutally not an adequate method of biblical interpretation and does not follow the example found in scriptures of how the Bible interprets itself.
Concerning your questions above, are you hinting at Open Theism? I don’t think that is the case, but the language used of God “dealing differently” needs clarification. Give us a more specific example concerning a certain event or situation.
Jason, I was just reading past posts and realized I did not reply to your question. Would you like me to take it up again? Again, I apologize.